//------------------------------//
// Chp. 8: Galena: "Newcomers" 
// Story: Canterlot: The First Days 
// by AZFlashfire 
//------------------------------//

	She had just finished breakfast, and her father had gone off to work. Home alone, she thought, and the borders were now closed. Galena's best friend, Shengming, lived across the border of the town, and thus was a citizen of the Rising Sun Empire. No Equestrian citizen could be allowed over the border, because they could be a changeling disguising themselves. She understood why they had to close the border but wished terribly they hadn't. She felt so alone. Strange, maybe a sixteen-year old young mare should have more than one true friend, one that she didn't only see at school but talked to. In the small town she was certain others had friends across the border, friends they were now cut off from. She couldn't be the only one.
No, that'd be crazy.

Breakfast, for some reason, wasn't enough today. It was a hearty working stallion's breakfast, since she ate with her father before he left to do his job, mining lead deep underground. Most miners had been earth ponies, but her father was a unicorn, and he passed that to her. She walked around the house, having heated up some soup and, holding it in her magical grasp, sipping it with a spoon. By now she would have been on the other side of town to get Shengming, exploring the town with her, talking with the not-so-serious soldiers who guarded the border. They laughed, joked with their opposite on the other side of the checkpoint. But now, the ones on the Rising Sun Empire's side were stern, pointing their guns at anyone who attempted crossing over, even for something as simple as going to get cake. Yes, the only bakery that made them was on the other side, so they were cut off. Nopony really knew how to bake, and those who tried did a terrible job.

It hit her why she was still hungry: Being in the house gave her nothing to do. It was boring inside, and a lot of ponies did the same thing, sitting around with nothing to do. Quickly finishing her soup, she deposited it in the sink, and thought for a bit: Maybe the border was open again, the guards were to their normal joking selves. The chances, in her mind, were good enough, so she scanned the room until she found her set of keys, unlocking the door and stepping out, closing it behind her. She put most of her weight on the door to be sure as she locked it. Immediately she turned to the left, and went into the shed beside the house, opening it to grab her set of snowshoes. There was always about eight inches of snow. If it melted, more fell; no more, no less. 

The journey into the Equestrian side's center was lonely. Those she usually saw on the streets weren't there, and she felt as if she was in an abandoned city, like how she heard Trotterdam had become. Nopony whatsoever lived there now, it was part of the mass exodus in the west. She looked to her left, peering into the storefront of a bar. She saw a bit of movement in the dim place, so she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Her cheeks lit up with feeling, both because of how cold it had been outside, and because she knew she wouldn't normally be allowed inside.
"Hey, do you guys-"
She was silenced suddenly, as the one behind the counter put his hoof up and shushed her. A few others turned to look at her and she saw through the solid wall of bodies that they were surrounding a radio. It was only then that she realized the radio was on, and they were all huddled around it.
"-Canterlot has been evacuated, I repeat, Canterlot citizens are ordered to evacuate-"
They all groaned, cutting off her ability to hear the radio.
"Just like the Canterlot Defense to wuss out of a fight!" she heard one say. She turned and was ready to leave, then heard a panicked "No!" over the radio. The stallions spoke in hushed voices, and all grabbed their coats, rushing out of the bar. She had no choice but to follow after them, lagging behind as her snowshoes occasionally caught on things on top of the snow.

It seemed as if the entire town was standing in front of a very large shed on the outside of town. She saw somepony's tail, then their flank. They slowly backed out of the building, and about halfway she could tell it was a soldier. They weren't wearing snow camouflage but instead a forest one caked in places with snow and ice. And they weren't at all the soldiers who guarded the border. These were wearing body armor. A pony she recognized, Maple Tap, was tossed into the snow outside the shed, and then she remembered the shed was where he made his cider. It took this long to click, to realize they were arresting him.

"Stop!"
She felt eyes on her. The soldiers, both mares, looked up at her, but she felt as if everyone in the crowd was now glaring at her.
"What are you doing?" she asked them, stepping forward. Their weapons gleamed on them, hooked to their sides and backs. She shivered a bit, not from the cold but being this close to live weapons.
"This stallion has an illegal cider still in this shed." The rust-maned one asked her, using her left foreleg to hold herself up, and her right to keep the Maple on the ground.
"It doesn't have alcohol. H-how about you try it?"
The one with the rusty mane lifted her hoof off of Maple and allowed him to fix them cups of cider. The soldiers, and Galena, came inside, and she was given one too. With her magic she lifted it to her lip and drank. The cup was freezing, the cider was even colder, but it was delicious nonetheless, as it always was. The apples were off-season though, able to last so long because they had been allowed to freeze. She drank the thing down in one go, and looking over she could see the two soldiers were doing the same. The black and yellow one exhaled a ragged breath, and looked down at her cup, stretching it out, but then stopping.
"See? Completely- *burp* legitimate." Galena said, wiping her mouth and excusing herself for burping.
"It would appear so. Fine, you're free to go," the rust-haired one said to Maple. He went outside and shooed everyone off.
"Little filly, would you mind being our guide while we're here?"
"I- Hey, wait! I'm not a filly, my mother says I'm a young mare now. I'm mature and- I-I mean...I wouldn't mind, even though you tried to arrest my friend." She tried her best to smile, and managed a small forced one.
"Well, hard cider..it's only really legal if you have a license, and he didn't, so we had to try and arrest him. But, since there's no alcohol in the process, it's fine. Sorry." the black and yellow one said. She led them out of the shed, and took them to her home, where she learned their names: Honeybee and Ferra Rust.

She didn't know how her father would react to two fully-armed soldiers sitting in his house with his daughter. When her mother came home, her reaction may be even more adverse.

She'd just have to wait and see.